The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul

by Victoria Goddard

Ebook, 2022

Status

Available

Call number

Fic SF Goddard

Publication

Victoria Goddard

Description

Before the Fall of the Empire of Astandalas, the Red Company was legendary. A dozen or so years after that cataclysm, they have almost faded into myth. Pali Avramapul may not have gone under her own name since the dissolution of the Red Company, but she is no myth, and has certainly not faded. She fights folly and injustice as fiercely as ever--although, as a respected scholar of history at one of the Circle Schools of Alinor, she now tends to use her tongue and pen more than her sword. She still keeps the sword sharp, of course. You never know when adventure will come calling. She expects her sabbatical to be a decorous, respectable sort of adventure, the kind with which she can regale her colleagues in the Senior Common Room upon her return. She's not very upset when she finds one or two of her old friends and it turns out the adventure is much more likely to involve a plot to kidnap the Last Emperor of Astandalas. There's respectable, after all, and then there's respectable. Book Two of the Red Company Reformed, but able to be read on its own.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bell7
Pali Avramapul, formerly of the Red Company, has been mostly content in her job as a professor. She is known as Domina Black, the foremost expert on Emperor Artorin Damara's reign. When the archives open up at the court, she takes the opportunity to travel and research, not anticipating how meeting
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the emperor himself will impact her.

If you've read The Hands of the Emperor, you will recognize part of where the story is going. Because time runs differently in different parts of the emperor, Pali's story is a bit compressed, overlapping with the timeline of both The Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell. It very much does not stand on its own, but gives you a new perspective on elements of both those stories. The beginning is very slow and I had a tough time orienting myself to the timeline I just described; the second half moves along at a good clip. Goddard's strength is writing characters and their relationships well, and this is true in Pali as well. I teared up a few times during conversations or reunions.
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LibraryThing member quondame
Pali Avramapul famed outlaw swordswoman adventurer is indeed well defended by her skills and wits, but perhaps at a disadvantage when gates are a better way to a goal than ramparts. Many scenes from the first book of the subseries - and even from The Hands of the Emperor are repeated from Pali's
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view point so it's not until 60% through that the timeline advances for the reader. As pleasant to read as the other books set in this world.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
I thought this was one of the novellas, so I have inadvertently read it out of order, but one of the things I love about Goddard's work is that it really doesn't matter. We swim in a rich world, back and forth through vortexes of time and magic and connections and it all just flows. This story has
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difficult processing of different traumas and also working out how to relationship and also some serious flying carpet action and deep friendships and general badassery that I enjoy very much. Also, that gentle and philosophical conversation that I lovelovelove about the Monk&Robot books -- these are both traveling books, unraveling of sorrows books, rest in the kind-but-sometimes-hard safety of friendships books. I am so glad to be continuing this journey.
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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Oh my. Pali is amazing - I'm so glad we get to see what _she_ thought of her meetings with the Emperor and with Kip. The timeline is thoroughly tangled, which explains some puzzles in other books. There are quite a few scenes that we've already seen, from a different angle - and every one adds to
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the story immensely. Now I have to reread (parts of) Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell…
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Original publication date

2022-05-17

Local notes

Red Company Reformed, 2

DDC/MDS

Fic SF Goddard

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Rating

½ (24 ratings; 3.9)
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